New brain-scanning method could help improve how anxiety is understood and diagnosed

A study by the University of Portsmouth in England has mapped the biological journey of anxiety in the brain when people are faced with a no-win situation.

Imagine you’re stuck between two bad options—like having to choose between doing a presentation you’re dreading or failing a class. That uncomfortable feeling of being trapped between two things you want to avoid is called “avoid-avoid conflict,” and it’s closely linked to anxiety. When this happens, your brain has measurable responses that researchers can now study.

Benjamin Stocker, a Ph.D. student in the University’s School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences, created a video game-like task he coded himself, where 40 young adults (aged 18–24) had to use a joystick to avoid threatening objects on a screen. Sometimes the task was easy (low conflict), and sometimes it put players in impossible situations where they had to choose between two bad outcomes (high conflict).

While people played this game, researchers measured their brain activity using EEG (electroencephalography)—a technique that uses sensors on your head to detect electrical signals from your brain.

When facing tough “no-win” situations, people’s brains showed a specific pattern of activity. The right side of the brain’s frontal area became more active (in what’s called “theta waves”). Different brain areas also lit up depending on whether the situation was stressful or manageable.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, suggest these brain patterns might be a signature for anxiety-related conflict.

“Think of it like finally having a way to ‘see’ anxiety in the brain, rather than just relying on how someone describes feeling anxious,” explained Stocker, whose interest in the field stems from his previous work in general practice. He witnessed first-hand the gaps in mental health support: “I spoke to a lot of patients and saw there was a real need to address this issue.

“At the moment, there’s no procedure to quickly and properly diagnose someone with a mental health condition. If you get a cold or catch the flu, you get prescribed medicine, but if you have a mental health condition, it could be a 6–9 month trial-and-error period before getting the right diagnosis and treatment.

“This research helps us understand the biological basis of anxiety. This could eventually lead to better ways to diagnose anxiety disorders, new treatments that target these specific brain patterns, and a deeper understanding of why some people struggle more with difficult decisions.”

The research journey began during Stocker’s undergraduate psychology degree, continued through a Master’s in neuroscience, and now forms the basis of his Ph.D.—all at the University of Portsmouth.

Traditional anxiety research focuses on “approach-avoid” conflict—weighing up something good against something not quite as good. This study is the first to integrate EEG with an “avoid-avoid” scenario where no option is beneficial, more accurately reflecting real-world anxiety situations.

The study produced statistically strong results, with effect sizes considered large by research standards. This means the differences in brain activity between high-conflict and low-conflict situations were clear and substantial—not just small changes that could be due to chance.

It represents a significant step towards evidence-based, personalized mental health treatment that could transform how anxiety disorders are diagnosed and managed in the U.K.

“One in four people experience anxiety,” added Stocker. “There are huge gaps in the literature that no one has identified. Potentially one day you could give someone a small EEG device and be able to tell them if they have an anxiety condition.”

Benjamin Stocker’s study was conducted at the University of Portsmouth under the supervision of Dr. Roger Moore and Dr. Tom Lockhart.

Dr. Moore said, “Ben’s research brings us a step closer to identifying a reliable, individual-level biomarker that could aid diagnosis of clinical anxiety and inform new non-drug based treatments.”

The team is now looking at future studies that test how anxiety medications affect these newly identified brain patterns, and plans to include people with diagnosed anxiety disorders. This next phase of research will be crucial in determining whether the findings can translate into real-world diagnostic tools.